Abstract
This chapter focuses on the social production of health (SPH) with particular reference to Marxist analysis or political economy of health, fundamental cause theory and feminist analysis of health. Social production of health/disease refers to theoretical frameworks which argue that the structural inherent characters of human society, especially social and economic conditions, are fundamental causes of health inequalities. After examining the basic features of Marxism, this chapter proceeds with the discussion of the political economy of health (PEH), which is a macroanalytic, critical, and historical perspective for analysing disease distribution and health services under a variety of economic systems. This chapter traces the history of the Marxist analysis of health from classical ideas to recent proponents like Navarro Vicente, Hans A. Baer, and Howard Waitzkin. After some criticisms of PEH, the fundamental cause theory developed by Bruce G. Link and Jo C. Phelan (Journal of Health and Social Behavior (extra issue), 80–94, 1995) is presented. A fundamental cause theory tends to identify a factor that has persisted, fundamental or central despite changing circumstances, which can explain distribution of disease among groups in the society. Then, the feminist analysis of health, a form of dialectic (materialism) based on sex, which affects population health, is presented. The arguments start with reference to the classical ideas from Sexual Politics by Kate Millett, The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir, The Dialectic of Sex by Shulamith Firestone, and The Sociology of Housework by Ann Oakley. The chapter discusses the recent discourse on the feminist analysis of health in sociology with reference to the groundbreaking works of the 1970s and 1980s. The chapter also provides a theoretical explanation of engendered circumstances and experiences that affect women’s health.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Alexander, K., & Blackburn, J. (2013). Overcoming barriers in evaluating outbreaks of diarrheal disease in resource poor settings: Assessment of recurrent outbreaks in Chobe District, Botswana. BMC Public Health, 13, 775. doi:10.1186/1471-2458-13-775.
Amzat, J., & Omololu, F. (2012). Basics of sociological paradigms. In I. S. Ogundiya & J. Amzat (Eds.), The basics of social sciences (pp. 115–134). Lagos: Malthouse Press.
Annandale, E. (2013). Gender theory and health. In W. C. Cockerham (Ed.), Medical sociology on the move: New directions in theory (pp. 145–171). Dordrecht: Springer.
Annandale, E., & Hunt, K. (1990). Masculinity, femininity and sex: An exploration of their relative contribution to explaining gender differences in health. Sociology of Health & Illness, 12(1), 24–46.
Baer, H. A. (1982). On the political economy of health. Medical Anthropology Newsletter, 14(1), 1–17.
Baer, H. A. (1986). Sociological contributions to the political economy of health: Lessons for medical anthropologists. Medical Anthropology Quarterly, 17(5), 129–131.
Bati, J., Legesse, M., & Medhin, G. (2013). Community’s knowledge, attitudes and practices about tuberculosis in Itang Special District, Gambella Region, South Western Ethiopia. BMC Public Health, 13, 734. doi:10.1186/1471-2458-13-734.
Beauvoir, Simone de (1972). The second sex (translated by H. M. Parshley). Penguin.
Capes, T., Ascher-Walsh, C., Abdoulaye, I., & Brodman, M. (2011). Obstetric fistula in low and middle income countries. Mount Sinai Journal of Medicine, 78(3), 352–361. doi: 10.1002/msj.20265.
Chafet, J. S. (1997). Feminist theory and sociology: Underutilized contributions for mainstream theory. Annual Review of Sociology, 23, 97–120.
Clarke, J. N. (1983). Sexism, feminism and medicalism: A decade review of literature on gender and illness. Sociology of Health & Illness, 5, 62–82.
Doyal, L. (1996). The politics of women’s health: Setting a global agenda. International Journal of Health Services, 26(1), 47–65.
Doyal, L. (2000). Gender equity in health: Debates and dilemmas. Social Science & Medicine, 51, 931–939.
Doyal, L., & Pennell, I. (1979). The political economy of health. London: Pluto Press.
Engels, F. (1845). The condition of the working-class in England in 1844 (translated by Florence K. Wischnewetzky). London: George Allen & Unwin LTD.
Firestone, S. (1970). The dialectic of sex: The case for feminist revolution. NY: Farrar Straus and Giroux.
Gabe, J., Bury, M., & Elston, M. A. (2004). Key concepts in medical sociology. London: Sage Publications.
Geissler, P. W., & Molyneux, C. (Eds.), (2011). Evidence, ethos and experiment: The anthropology and history of medical research in Africa. NY: Berghahn Books.
Hart, N. (1982). Is capitalism bad for your health? The British Journal of Sociology, 33(3), 435–443.
Haslanger, S., Tuana, N., & O’Connor, P. (2012). Topics in feminism. In E. N. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy (Summer 2012 Edition). Url: http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2012/entries/feminism-topics/. Accessed 28 June 2012.
Holtz, T. H., Holmes, S., Stonington, S., & Eisenberg, L. (2006). Health is still social: Contemporary examples in the age of the genome. PLoS Medicine, 3(10), e419. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.0030419.
House, J. S., Kessler, R. C., & Herzog, A. R. (1990). Age, socioeconomic status, and health. The Milbank Memorial Fund, 68, 383–411.
House, J. S., Lepkowski, J. M., Kinney, A. M., Mero, R. P., Kessler, R. C., & Herzog, A. R. (1994). The social stratification of aging and health. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 35, 213–34.
House, J. S., Lantz, P. M., & Herd, P. (2005). Continuity and change in the social stratification of aging and health over the life course: Evidence from a nationally representative longitudinal study from 1986 to 2001/2002 (Americans’ Changing Lives Study). The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 60(Spec. No. 2), 15–26.
Ijaiya, M. A., Rahman, A. G., Aboyeji, A. P., Olatinwo, A. W., Esuga S. A., Ogah, O. K., Raji, H. O., Adebara, I. O., Akintobi, A. O., Adeniran, A. S., & Adewole, A. A. (2010). Vesicovaginal fistula: A review of Nigerian experience. West African Journal of Medicine, 29(5), 293–298.
Illich, I. (1974). Medical nemesis. The Lancet, 303(7863), 918–921.
Illich, I. (2003). Medical nemesis. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 57, 919–922.
Janzen, J. M. (1978). The comparative study of medical systems as changing social systems. Social Science & Medicine, 12, 121–129.
Jegede, A. S. (2009). Understanding informed consent for participation in international health research. Developing World Bioethics, 9(2), 81–87.
Krieger, N. (1994). Epidemiology and the web of causation: Has anyone seen the Spider? Social Science & Medicine, 39, 887–903.
Krieger, N. (2001). Emerging theories for social epidemiology in the 21st century: An ecosocial perspective. International Journal of Epidemiology, 30, 668–677.
Lengermann, P. M., & Niebrugge, G. (2011). Contemporary feminist theory. In G. Ritzer Sociological theory. NY: McGraw-Hill.
Link, B. G., & Phelan, J. (1995). Social conditions as fundamental causes of disease. Journal of Health and Social Behavior (extra issue), 80–94.
Link, B. G., & Phelan, J. C. (1996). Editorial: Understanding sociodemographic differences in health—The role of fundamental social causes. American Journal of Public Health, 86, 471–3.
Link, B. G., & Phelan, J. (2010). Social conditions as fundamental causes of health inequalities. In C. E. Bird, P. Conrad, A. M. Freemont, & S. Timmermans (Eds.), Handbook of medical sociology (6th ed.). Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press.
Lupton, D. (2003). Medicine as culture: Illness, disease and the body in Western Societies. London: Sage Publications.
Marx, K. (1887). Capital: A critique of political economy. (Translated by Samuel Moore and Edward Aveling, edited by Frederick Engels). Moscow: Progress Publishers.
Millett, K. (1969). Sexual politics. Granada Publishing.
Morgan, L. M. (1987). Dependency theory in the political economy of health: An anthropological critique. Medical Anthropology Quarterly (New Series), 1(2), 131–154.
Nathanson, C. A. (1975). Illness and the feminine role: A theoretical review. Social Science & Medicine, 9, 57–62.
Nathanson, C. A. (1977). Sex, illness and medical care: A review of data, theory and method. Social Science & Medicine, 11, 13–25.
Nathanson, C. A. (1984). Sex differences in mortality. Annual Review of Sociology, 10, 191–213.
Navarro, V. (1974). A critique of the present and proposed strategies for redistributing resources in the health sector and a discussion of alternatives. Medical Care, 12, 721–742.
Navarro, V. (1975a). The political economy of medical care: An explanation of the composition, nature, and functions of the present health sector of the United States. International Journal of Health Services, 5(1), 65–94.
Navarro, V. (1975b). Women in health care. New England Journal of Medicine, 292, 398–402.
Navarro, V. (1976). Social class, political power and the state and their implications in medicine. Social Science & Medicine, 10, 437–457.
Navarro, V. (2009). What we mean by social determinants of health. Global Health Promotion, 16(1), 5–16.
Nettleton, S. (1996). Women and the new paradigm of health and medicine. Critical Social Policy, 16, 33–53.
Novignon, J., & Novignon, J. (2012). Socioeconomic status and the prevalence of fever in children under age five: Evidence from four sub-Saharan African countries. BMC Research Notes, 5, 380. doi:10.1186/1756-0500-5-380.
Oakley, A. (1974). The sociology of housework. London: Martin Robertson.
Oakley, A. (1980). Women confined: Towards a sociology of childbirth. Oxford: Martin Robertson.
Onoge, O. F. (1975) Capitalism and public health: A neglected theme in the medical anthropology of Africa. In S. R. Ingman & A. E. Thomas (Eds.), Topias and utopias in health (pp. 219–232). The Hague: Mouton.
Phelan, J., & Link, B. G. (2013) Fundamental cause theory. In W. C. Cockerham (Ed.), Medical sociology on the move: New directions in theory. Dordrecht: Springer.
Phelan, J., Link, B. G., Diez-Roux, A., Kawachi, I., & Levin, B. (2004). “Fundamental causes” of social inequalities in mortality: A test of the theory. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 45, 265–285.
Read, J. G., & Gorman, B. K. (2010). Gender and health inequality. Annual Review of Sociology, 36, 371–386.
Reidy, A. (1984). Marxist functionalism in medicine: A critique of the work of Vicente Navarro on health and medicine. Social Science & Medicine, 19(9), 897–910.
Ricci, F. (2012). Social implications of malaria and their relationships with poverty. Mediterranean Journal of Hematology and Infectious Diseases, 4(1), e2012048. doi: 10.4084/MJHID.2012.048.
Rieker P. P., & Bird, C. E. (2000). Sociological explanations of gender differences in mental and physical health. In C. E. Bird, P. Conrad, & A. M. Fremont (Eds.), Handbook of medical sociology (pp. 98–113). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall
Schnall, P. (1977). An introduction to historical materialist epidemiology. Health Movement Organization, 2, 1–9.
Sen, A. (2001). When misogyny becomes a problem: Many faces of gender inequality. The New Republic, 17 (September), 37–40.
Sen, A. (2003). Missing women—revisited: Reduction in female mortality has been counterbalanced by sex selective abortions. British Medical Journal, 327, 1297–1298.
Singer, M. (1986). Toward a political-economy of alcoholism: The missing link in the anthropology of drinking. Social Science & Medicine, 23(2), 113–130.
Stacey, J., & Thorne, B. (1985). The missing feminist revolution in sociology. Social Problems, 32(4), 301–316.
Ukwaja, K. N., Alobu, I., Lgwenyi, C., & Hopewell, P. C. (2013). The high cost of free tuberculosis services: Patient and household costs associated with tuberculosis care in Ebonyi state, Nigeria. PloS One, 8(8), e73134. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0073134.
Verbrugge, L. M. (1976). Females and illness: Recent trends in sex differences in the United States. Journal of Health & Social Behavior, 17, 387–403.
Verbrugge, L. M. (1985). Gender and health: An update on hypotheses and evidence. Journal of Health & Social Behaviour, 26, 156–82.
Verbrugge, L. M. (1989). The twain meet: Empirical explanations of sex differences in health and mortality. Journal of Health & Social Behavior, 30(3), 282–304.
Vlassoff, C. (1994). Gender inequalities in health in the Third World: Uncharted ground. Social Science & Medicine, 39(9), 1249–1259.
Waitzkin, H. (1978). A Marxist view of medical care. Annals of Internal Medicine, 89(2), 264–278.
Waitzkin, H. (1981). The social origins of illness: A neglected history. International Journal of Health Services, 11, 77–103.
Washington, H. A. (2006). Medical apartheid: The dark history of medical experimentation on Black Americans from colonial times to the present. NY: Doubleday.
Zaidi, S. A. (1996). Gender perspectives and quality of care in underdeveloped countries: Disease, gender and contextuality. Social Science & Medicine, 43(5), 721–730.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Amzat, J., Razum, O. (2014). Social Production of Health. In: Medical Sociology in Africa. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-03986-2_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-03986-2_6
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-03985-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-03986-2
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawSocial Sciences (R0)